Testimony, A Tribute to Charlie Parker

With New and Selected Jazz Poems

Yusef Komunyakaa

Publication Year: 2013

Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa is well known for his jazz poetry, and this book is the first to bring together the verve and vitality of his oeuvre. The centerpiece of this volume is the libretto “Testimony.” Paying homage to Charlie Parker, “Testimony” was commissioned for a radio drama with original music by eminent Australian composer and saxophonist Sandy Evans. Remarkably rich and evocative, encompassing a wide range of musical energy and performers, this moving affirmation of Parker’s genius became a milestone in contemporary radio theater. Twenty-eight additional poems spanning the breadth of Komunyakaa’s career are included, including two never previously published. Accompanying the poems are interviews and essays featuring Komunyakaa, Evans, radio producer Christopher Williams, jazz critic Miriam Zolin, jazz writer and editor Sascha Feinstein, and musical director, Paul Grabowsky. Sascha Feinstein writes the foreword. Check for the online reader’s companion at testimony.site.wesleyan.edu. (This edition does not include any audio.)

Cover

Title Page, Copyright Page

Contents

Foreword

In 1997, the same year Yusef Komunyakaa completed “Testimony,” his
libretto for Charlie Parker, he flew to Chicago to perform live with a jazz
sextet led by multi-reed instrumentalist John Tchicai and bassist Fred
Hopkins. Released the following year on the CD Love Notes from the Madhouse,
the session would go so well that Tchicai later gushed, “There might...

Ode to the Saxophone

Coda

Part Two: Testimony

The Libretto

Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Testimony” and the Humanity of Charlie Parker

If Charlie Parker could read the thousands of poems written in his honor,
would he be delighted enough by the sheer volume to overlook the weakness
of the verse itself ? Perhaps. He was known, after all, for his generous
praise, and certainly one cannot fault the inspiration for these poems,
Parker being one of the most important artists of the twentieth (or any)...

Survival Masks: An Interview with Yusef Komunyakaa

Testimony

The Music

Testimony, The Ties that Bind

One story you hear around these parts is that in the 1950s a teenage John
Pochée used to ask his mother for bus money so he could visit the late Joe
‘Bebop’ Lane and listen to Lane’s copy of a Charlie Parker record—one of
a rare few that had made their way across the world to this faraway island...

French Flowers Blooming: The Music for Testimony

Having previously collaborated with Yusef Komunyakaa, Christopher
Williams, a producer and director in Sydney, commissioned the poet to
write a large-scale work for ABC Radio Drama in Australia. The following
is an edited transcript from a production meeting between Christopher...

Composer/Musical Director’s Notes

I can still remember the exhilaration I felt on first hearing a recording of
Charlie Parker. The energy, virtuosity, passion, innovation, spontaneity,
intelligence and sheer beauty of his playing remain to this day an artistic
pinnacle that I will never come close to reaching, but for which I am...

Testimony, Songs and Musicians

I orchestrated each of Yusef ’s poems in response to the affective emotion
and aesthetics of the narrative. A unique band was formed for every
composition, each one featuring vocalists and musicians who embodied
particular expressive qualities intrinsic in the text...

Australian Art Orchestra Performances

Charlie Parker’s contribution to the art and culture of the twentieth
century must be compared to that of Stravinsky, Picasso or Joyce. A
protean modernist, his improvisations encrypt the entire known Western
musical syntax of his time into a language in which the commonplace is
elevated to the same status as the arcane, the whimsical plays freely with...

Contributors

Selected Bibliography

Selected Discography

Acknowledgments

Thanks, Sandy and Christopher. I’m still surprised by how the spirit
of Charlie Parker worked on us and created a bridge strong enough to
support our dreaming. Thanks for the creative courage, vision, and genius.
Also thanks to the musicians, singers, and the voice shaping the spoken...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.